Low sperm counts linked to gene control flaw

Main Category: Fertility
Article Date: 22 May 2004 - 0:00 PDT

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Men suffering fertility problems because of a low sperm count may have flaws in the fundamental programming of their genes, known as imprinting.

Nearly a quarter of men with low sperm counts showed problems with the on/off switch - or imprint - governing a crucial gene, revealed a new study of men undergoing fertility treatment. And if the control of one gene is impaired, this means others may also be defective, says Cristina Joana Marques, at the University of Porto in Portugal, and one of the research team.

"We have found a connection between low sperm counts and imprinting effects - the first time someone has done that," says Marques. "We don't know if this could be a cause of the low sperm count, but we know it's an association."

Furthermore, the discovery may mean that men whose low sperm count is related to imprinting problems could also pass these defects on to children they conceive via assisted reproductive technologies like in-vitro fertilisation (IVF) or intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI).

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